FlyLady Tips: How is Your Sewing or Office Storage doing?

This week would be a great time to straighten the office. Don't you think? I spent several days last week doing just that. I hadn't actually intended to declutter the sewing cabinets and office stuff (both in the same room). But when a dear friend offers you a fabulous new desk but needs it out by Saturday night, well, guess what you're doing? That's right.

One fringe benefit of this lovely desk, was that I could now have all my precious homemaking, sewing, organizing, and crafting books, plus lesson planning and devotional material in one easy to reach location. Pinch me--is it real?

Boy, is it ever true that you have to make a mess to clean a mess! And if you want to rearrange furniture in this room...well 'mess' is an understatement. In order to get that beautiful desk into my sewing room, we had to not only re-arrange all the furniture, but also empty every piece out and re-organize it.

Originally, we had the boys on two computer desks, which were portable tables (2 x 4') and I also had a big folding worktable in the middle of the room. I have to tell you, that my knees got weak and my stomach started churning just thinking of the amount of time and brain-work that would be required to make this transformation. But oh, was it ever worth it!

Of course, I 'volun-told' (a Marine term) the boys to help. We had to unplug and reassemble THREE computers and all accompanying accessories. Yipes! The boys were just thrilled of course. "Certainly, Mother--anything you ask! Our pleasure!" (I'll spare you the actual response. Ha!) Thank goodness, those desks and table could all be removed.

Now we had to empty both mine and Rebekah's sewing desks and give them to the boys. One fringe benefit is that all the boys'stuff' was removed from the file cabinet under the printer, which could now be used for files. That emptied a few drawers of my desk. Which made room for patterns and Rebekah's projects.

The worst chore was taking everything from both the huge Ikea cabinet and the 'sewing' cabinet, declutter it all and re-organize both pieces of furniture in some semblance of order. It took half a day to do it, but now ALL our sewing stuff and ALL our office and school materials are paired down and stored properly.

And the IKEA cabinet is now full of sewing supplies and fabric. It's organized in five general divisions based on frequency of use: Quilting at the top, then craft supplies, applique, yarn, and sewing. The lower drawers all have fabric bolts and quilting and cutting boards.

While I was at it, we converted the 'laundry sorter' shelf which we never used, to a current projects shelf. (Oh my! I think I'm in trouble. That's an awful lot of current projects. Perhaps, I don't quite understand the meaning of the word 'current'. Hmmm..)

Now, if only I was done. But alas, we still needed to give Rebekah a place to sew. I had removed half the stuff from my 'desk' including my files to the little file cabinet under the printer. My computer and all the rest of the stuff was waiting in piles in the bedroom to be put into the new and larger desk.

I was like a kid in a candy shop watching my dear hubby assemble the desk. I must admit that he was VERY skeptical that we would ever be able to squeeze it in. (Actually, he told me later he just did it because he loves me. What a sweetie!) When life hands you a desk...you gotta make room--and I did! My sewing and computer are all on the same desk. Now I can lesson plan, pay bills, sew, and blog...all at once. It's a multi-taskers' dream (or nightmare).We'll see...

Are you ready for some decluttering and re-organizing? What state is your office or sewing storage in? I hope you are inspired to take the plunge and get rid of a few things. Let's adopt the Sidetracked Sisters' motto and "Dare to Dump It!"

8 comments:

Claudia...that cat is only the beginning! We have three and they are all convinced that the new desk is their playtoy. We should have a play date. :o) I'm sure you cat would love drinking out of the betta's bowl, sleeping in the current project shelf, and sitting on the computer watching the paper come out, or even perch on the top shelf and scratch at moving objects on the computer screen. The cats are having a blast with my new furniture arrangements.

Great set up. I really like your home. It's so lived in, so carefree and a fun place to be at. Congrats on getting that desk, etc, you lucked out and did a great job making it a home. Thanks for the nice comment on my blog. You truly are a kind person. Have a great tomorrow.

Hehe, now I want to know what your boys' real response was to your request, of course I can imagine too well since I have two (boys) of my own!! laugh! Hmmm, "voluntold", a nice term I'm adding to my repertoire... thankyou!I'm sure yournew re-organised space will give you lots of pleasure. A clean-out is so refreshing and invigorating, and gives you renewed energy for embarking on a whole lot of new projects, don't you think?

Okay Donna, stop looking through my windows already! *LOL* I just cleaned out my office (formerly known as the room where things go to die)and it makes me feel so much less stressed. It doesn't look near as nice as yours though, great job! Now you have plenty of room to make more messes! :)

Welcome to Comin' Home! If you lived nearby, I'd invite you over to my neck of the woods for a nice long chat and a cup of tea out on the deck. But since we can't do that, I hope you'll stay and look around. I love learning new things and sharing what I learn with friends. Comin' Home is where I share tips from my many projects. Let's have some fun together! XO Donna